PRIDE WALK FESTIVAL- KOLKATA
Kolkata rainbow pride festival (KRPF) hosted a pride walk festival on the 10th of December 2017, in favour of the LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual transgender) community. Pride walks have often been a sign of protesting against the continuous discrimination of the LGBT community. Hundreds of people from every age group, from every community, had joined in numbers to challenge the cause of the “other gender” as they are often called. The walk also aimed at rejecting or amending the transgender bill which was passed by the central government in 2016. Thought this bill apparently seemed to help the transgender get their rights, it actually violated a lot of rights that humans otherwise enjoy. It also violated the terms of the national legal services authority (NALSA).
People who participated in the walk claimed that though the transgender bill enforced equal treatment to the transgender without any discrimination on any grounds in the society, the bill had described transgender in a very degrading way. It established that a person was inferior or little less than normal when that person is a transgender. The transgender on the other hand protest to be treated as just like any other gender without being subject to social exclusion.
Not only transgender, the total LGBT community marched down the streets to protest against unequal treatment in the society. It was a remarkable event in Kolkata’s history where not only the LGBT community but also students joined the protests in numbers. It was a day that marked the freedom of expression of every individual who sang, danced or simply marched down the roads raising slogans. Everyone painter their faces with rainbow color or carried banners of rainbow color to protest against the saffron government. It was a delightful sight to see how people accepted the form of protest and kept joining till the parade reached the last lap of the journey. The walk seemed to be a real step towards the building of an egalitarian society, which was years ago suggested by the preamble of our Constitution.
Walking down the roads of Kolkata with hundreds of people challenging for the same cause aiming the upliftment of the society is thus no more a dream. This pride walk has almost become the symbol of equality and freedom paving way for a better society tomorrow.